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1.3.1-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Book 1: Fantine, Book 3 Ch. 1: The Year 1817 Yesterday’s chapter was hard for me to write about because I had too many emotions about it; today is hard to write about because I have basically NO emotions about it. I suppose this chapter must have made total sense to a lot of people at the time. It makes me think of some Stephen King digressions (YES I’m getting Stephen King into discussion, popular authors are popular, darn it) about the era of the book’s setting— they’re very evocative if you have a personal memory of the things being discussed, maybe interesting make SOME sense to the children of those people, and then…uh..well, here, have a chapter-length list of old rock and roll songs. I’m sure to people with a better grasp of French history here the details mean a great deal, but I basically look at this chapter and see “A man was famous! And some other guy! And then some guys did the things at the thing!” and I can google and wiki away and I will, but that does not exactly make for gripping narrative. It’s like story by flashcard. I do gather that Napoleon’s out, royalty’s in, and suddenly everyone’s acting like they were eating with the Cool Kids all along, and everyone is letting them, and Narrative Voice apparently thinks this is way tacky though personally I don’t see the problem.Ahah, although there is rather a lot of sympathy for political exiles in this passage which, Hugo’s situation being what it was, I can certainly understand. I’m more interested by the note in passing that this was the year divorce became illegal again? That seems pretty immediately important for average people. But overall, it seems like this is The Morning After France has had its Glorious Revolutionary and Imperial Adventures and now the country’s trying to sneak out of the apartment before Consequences wake up and find it still there. Good luck, France. Of course the part that really stings is the closing line— in this year, “four young Parisians had a good laugh on four others.” Oh. This is going to hurt a lot. Commentary Timegoddessrose Reblogging because this… But overall, it seems like this is The Morning After France has had its Glorious Revolutionary and Imperial Adventures and now the country’s trying to sneak out of the apartment before Consequences wake up and find it still there. Good luck, France. …is the single best thing I have read all day. :DD Kalevala-sage Pilfering, did you just make a sex analogy? I have to say that was the…least expected thing… I’m really only jumping in for “''cette fatale frégate de la Méduse qui devait couvrir de honte Chaumareix et de gloire Géricault''" because that’s one of my favourite paintings and the only one that isn’t a favourite because of the use of light. Also my blog background. *beams* Unfortunately, I’m only getting more trivial from there, because I find legally-ordained alterations of nomenclature both outrageous and fascinating, including the brief mention that “les lycées s’appelaient collèges” in 1817: Québec currently employs both words in offering three years of lycée (beginning with high school) and then two of cégep (“collège”) before a typically 3-year undergrad program, which we Anglophones, bafflingly enough, call “college.” A quick consultation of Wikipedia shows that France’s secondary system entails three years of collège followed by three of lycée, replacing both middle and high school before students ship off to undergrad—is that some remnant of this chapter’s slice of history? Also concerning nomenclature, while “dire: les régicides, ou dire: les votants" elicited a giggle for the sheer absurdity of calling modern voters regicides, it’s a wonder the same hasn’t gone for Napoléon, who is remembered as…Napoleon. I only know one person who says Buonaparte, though, and the sheer willful nonconformism of his spelling made me cackle so hard the first time I read it, so that’s hardly representative (I’m talking about Gascon). Oh, well. If the quotidian truly does contribute to history as much as the monolithic, Hugo wouldn’t fault me for this relatively vapid post…right? Pilferingapples (reply to Kalevala-sage) I’ve been married 15 years I am chaste not virginal I read Gascon’s blog I know Sex Exists …Aaand I actually had to check my post to see what you were referring to because I was thinking of it in the context of cleaning up the night after a party whoops. But we can pretend I was making a sex analogy like a normal adult person! I think trying to track mandatory language changes is pretty relevant! Honestly it feels like kind of a vapid *chapter* to me, so far, I don’t know what we’re all supposed to do with it if not focus on the details! Gascon-en-exile (reply to Pilferingapples' reply) So apparently my blog is now required reading for knowing that sex does, in fact, exist. I feel far more proud of myself than I should especially considering the only sex ed I ever had was the extremely limited Catholic school version. Kalevala-sage (reply to Pilferingapples' reply) "I read Gascon’s blog I know Sex Exists” Lord Edwarddespard (reply to Kalevala-sage's reply) That line cheered me up immensely as well. Pilferingapples (reply to Edwarddespard's reply) I am...glad this pleases you?